Disclaimer: Not mine.

Author's notes: Been really busy in real life lately and I haven't found as much time to write as I did with Lost: Northern Crater. I hope I am not depriving the Reno/Elena fans with the constant action/thriller/mystery that is going on.

But as I have mentioned in the first chapter, this is more of a action/adventure fic than a sappy romance because I don't do romance well.

Well, anyway, I appreciate your support and thanks for the reviews.

He heard a crash and the line went dead. Reno stood up so quick he knocked over the bar stool much to the chagrin of the bartender.

Damn it.

Without paying, he took off; running as hard as his legs will allow towards his car.

He dialled Rude's number and when he answered, Reno only said two words to get his point across.

"It's Elena."

Why the hell am I still alive?

Were the first thoughts that came into her mind when she opened her eyes.

A pair of blue eyes; glowing eerily in the dark, greeted her vision as it became clearer.

"Are you alright?" the voice was unfamiliar but kind.

Elena nodded slowly and blinked a few times to adjust her vision to the bright lights in her room.

A large (definitely male) hand was offered and she took it gingerly. The man pulled her up to her feet with a sharp tug.

After brushing off the dust on her clothes, Elena surveyed the damage in her room. Her assailant was lying motionless and his blood was pooling onto the ground.

She turned to the man to thank him for saving her, but when she finally caught a full view of her saviour, the words died in her throat.

Reno had arrived in the entrance of the hospital the exact same time Rude did. They shared a glance at each other and nodded, running through the doors towards Elena's room.

The hospital staff protests about their cars parked in the emergency room entrance fell onto deaf ears.

They didn't care about all the other people that needed saving; they just hoped they will get to Elena before anything happens.

"Strife!" Reno yelled as he charged towards the startled spiky blonde.

Grabbing hold of the man's collars, Reno slammed the ex-SOLDIER against the wall roughly.

"Where is she?" He hissed angrily, "If I find out that you touched even a single hair on her head, I am going to kill you."

For someone pinned up against the wall by a Turk, Reno noticed that Cloud seemed pretty relaxed.

"Look behind you," the blonde said sarcastically, "before you start making accusations."

Reno turned and there she was, standing behind him with her hands on her hips as though nothing had happened. She waved at him with a smirk on her lips and he knows then that she would never let him forget this incident.

"Ahem," Reno coughed, slightly embarrassed. He loosened the hold on Cloud's collar and brushed the man's shoulders lightly as though trying to get rid of invisible lint.

"So, Strife, what have you been up to lately?"

They were all positioned comfortably around Elena's bed in her new room. Reno took the chair next to her bed, Rude stood next to her stoically and Cloud leaned against the wall in front of her, arms crossed against his chest.

It was a strange sight; AVALANCHE and the Turks in the same room. Elena couldn't resist a smile at that thought.

"You want to tell us what happened just now or should I wait some more?" Reno asked impatiently, he'd waited long enough.

Elena glared at him before briefing her two team mates about how the strange man had snuck into her room, tried to smother her with a pillow and how she woke up with Cloud in the room.

Reno's eyes narrowed when she finished her story by declaring Cloud her saviour. He leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially into her ear, "How do we know he didn't send that guy over?"

"I can still hear you, you know," Cloud announced from his position against the wall, "And it wasn't me."

"Why should we trust you?" Reno spat.

"Because if he was out to get me, he would have finished me off before you guys came," Elena explained exasperatedly, pushing his mouth away from her ears.

With a friendly smile at Cloud, she said to him, "Don't worry about him; he is still bitter that you managed to put him in the hospital all those years ago."

Much to Reno's displeasure, Cloud sent a smirk in his direction at Elena's comment.

"Fine. So, can you explain why you are here at the exact same time some nutjob tried to get Elena?"

"Conicidence?" Cloud said with a shrug.

"Bullshit."

"I'd actually planned to see you all. The fact that I caught that guy was a coincidence."

"You came to see us?" Elena asked, puzzled.

"Yes, I came to see you about the conversation you had with Tifa two days ago."

"We all just talked," Reno said defensively. His two team mates nodded with agreement.

"But after you all left, someone broke into the bar and destroyed everything there, so I came to ask you if you would know anything about that," explained Cloud.

This time, it was Elena's turn to protest. "It wasn't us, if that's what you want to know."

Cloud hesitated, as if debating with himself internally whether or not to continue the conversation. "That's not all they did…"

Digging into the pockets of his jeans, he pulled out a crumpled piece of yellow paper. "…They also left this."

Ironing it with his hands, he placed it on the table for everyone in the room to see. Elena felt a chill go down her spine when she saw what was on the paper.

Written in red ink was one word that would haunt them for a long time to come.

Retribution.

Reno was the first person that broke the tense silence that transpired from the note.

"'Retribution'?" Reno scoffed, "Now that's a cliché. What the hell does that even mean?"

His attempt to lighten the mood in the room went unnoticed and only served to annoy Elena more. "Revenge, Reno. It means revenge," she said in the condescending tone that he hated so much.

Sulking like a child, he muttered under his breath, "I know what it means."

Cloud chose to ignore the two Turks and turned his attention back to the piece of paper. "It's strange how things turn out, seems like too much is going on to be a coincidence," he mused out loud.

"What do you mean?" Reno asked with a raised eyebrow.

Something clicked in Elena's head as she processed Cloud's words. "Wait. You think that whoever that might be after us is going after Tifa too?"

The blonde man remained silent but the slight nod he gave confirmed her suspicions.

"Seems like quite a stretch doesn't it?" Reno said, unconvinced, "I mean, Elena here got shot at, blown up and smothered within the last thirty six hours and all you got is a…note."

"As much as I'd hate to admit it, Reno is right," Elena agreed, much to Reno's glee, "It just doesn't seem like the guy's style to break some bottles and leave a note. He is more of a 'shoot now, talk later' kind of person."

"Oh, so we are assuming that it's a guy now?" Reno couldn't resist adding. His comments were ignored.

If Cloud was offended that his theory about the attacks was rebuffed, he didn't show it. Instead, he shrugged and said, "It's just a theory."

"Anyway," Cloud continued, glancing at the clock on the wall, "I am going to check on Tifa now. I will keep you all updated if anything else happens."

From the back of the room, Rude chimed, "I will go with you", much to the surprise of his team mates.

Reno quickly disguised his surprise with a smirk; he'd always known that Rude had a soft spot for the leggy bartender.

As Cloud and Rude was leaving the Rude, Elena called out to him, "Hey Strife!"

Cloud stopped in his tracks and turned to face her.

"I owe you one," Elena said and he flashed a crooked smile at her. "This doesn't mean that we are friends though."

"Of course it doesn't," he remarked and turned to leave.

As she finally settled onto her left side to get rested, she suddenly remembered that Reno had not left the room. She turned to her right side this time and sure enough, there he was; hands behind his head and legs stretched out in front of him.

"What are you still doing here?" she asked, voice harsher than intended.

"Just making sure you don't die tonight," Reno answered matter-of-factly, as if it was the most obvious reason in the world.

"Oh" was the only smart reply she had to that. Squirming around to get comfortable, she turned onto the left side again. The sleeping pills the doctors gave her must have kicked in not long after that because in a few heartbeats, she was dead asleep.

…only this time she knows there will be no dreams of chasing dragons or psycho assassins in her room.